lots of close games, at the end anyways. i was off on the GB/Ariz and Pitt/Den margins, as well as Roethlisberger's effectiveness.
an attempt to defend Kansas City's clock management on their last scoring drive: they FORESAW that the onside kick would fail, so they hoarded their time-outs to stop New England from burning 117 seconds off the clock. of course, if KC has these powers of prognostication, they also knew Edelman would catch the ball off a ricochet, and the 3 time-outs would be pointless. okay, i tried. they're dumb. :/
anyway, from NE's perspective of KC's sloow drive (5.5 minutes, iirc), it reminds me of a baseball situation. if the team currently on defense is up 2+ runs late in the game and a runner's on base, they'll often cede 1 run to get the 2 outs. (outs being the analog to minutes here.)
Carolina and Seattle played in two separate games, one dominating each. the coaches' pre-game and half-time speeches will all be studied for years to come, for different reasons. ;)
not sure what to make of Manning. better than last year's playoff game. the 5 drops were mainly on the receivers, but he threw some screwy-looking balls. i could swear one was a sinker (to continue my baseball references), and with another, he made a wide-open receiver at close distance leave his feet, the ball bouncing off of his hands. as a unit, if this is how they did against one of the league's worst passing defenses with great starting field position, they'll be lucky to score 14 on the Patriots.
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